Chinese President Xi Jinping’s upcoming four-day state visit to the United States comes at a time when both sides are pledging to push for a new type of major power relations, a bilateral relationship Xi and Obama agreed to establish during a meeting in 2013.
“A new type of major power relations means avoiding conflict, confrontation, and treating each other with mutual respect, and cooperation toward win-win results,” said Da Wei, a scholar from China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.
“The purpose of the concept is peaceful coexistence and common development between China, a fast rising power in the world, and the United States, a ruling power,” he added.
China-U.S. relations have been fruitful in the last few years, with Obama visiting China last year, other notable high-level meetings taking place, and channels of communication developing well, such as the China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue, and the Sino-U.S. Cultural Exchange of High-level Consultation.
President Xi’s visit comes amid heated competition leading up to the U.S. presidential elections next year. Candidates have butted heads in debates over a number of issues with U.S. policies on China ranking high among them.